"Rhetorical questions bubble up throughout Jana Horn 's latest album: "Is this all there is?" "What can I say?" "What is left?" Well, perhaps they're not entirely rhetorical; she follows up that last one, on the sweetly forlorn "All in bet," by clarifying: "I'm honestly asking." This searching sincerity is a hallmark of Horn's songwriting, delivering existential probing with a dry, conversational delivery and a minimal instrumental palette."
"Horn first began writing songs in Texas, where she grew up, but her music career blossomed in Virginia, where she studied in a creative writing MFA program. During that time, her elegant debut album was re-released, and she put out its follow-up, 2023's crystalline The Window Is the Dream. After graduating, she uprooted herself, moving to New York-a transition she's said felt like an unfortunate "arranged marriage," one that wound up draining her and exacerbating her longing for friends and family."
"Most of Horn's new record comes from that first difficult year in New York, which may account for the untethered nature of its lyrics; they're concerned with beginnings and endings, "a feeling/that comes and goes," the sense that "nothing feels the same." The opening track (which Horn wrote years ago, but felt drawn to rework for this album) depicts an unshakeable instability: She considers the advice to "follow your bliss," but wonders, "What do you follow/When there's no scent of it?""
The self-titled third album centers on plaintive, searching songs framed as rhetorical questions that occasionally shift into sincere queries. The material largely stems from the artist's first difficult year after relocating from Texas and a formative period in Virginia, including an MFA and early releases. The New York move produced exhaustion and intensified longing for family and friends, shaping untethered lyrics about beginnings, endings, and a sense that nothing feels the same. Musically the record favors a minimal instrumental palette, light, serene vocals, and uncomplicated melodies that emphasize conversational, existential lyricism.
Read at Pitchfork
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